


I'm So Sorry

by lover_of_many_things



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-20
Updated: 2015-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-08 10:25:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3205838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lover_of_many_things/pseuds/lover_of_many_things
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A skimmons soulmate AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm So Sorry

Skye stared at the underside of her arm with apathy, reaching for her concealer to cover up the words that had been there since she was sixteen. At the orphanage all of the kids had boasted and shown off the phrases that appeared on their arms, no matter how weird they were, but Skye kept hers to herself. It’s not that she didn’t believe in soulmates—she had seen plenty of news stories about soulmates finding each other—she just knew how rare it was. She didn’t want to get her hopes up all the time, especially not with the words that were on her arm.

_I’m so sorry_

It was such a commonplace phrase. Skye heard it at least ten times a day, and over the years she stopped searching for who said it. The first couple of years after the words appeared Skye would come up with some strange response to  _I’m so sorry_  because then there’d be no question that they were soulmates. There were only so many strange looks Skye could take before she gave it up.

Ever since then she had taken up just covering the words up completely. Out of sight, out of mind. None of this stopped Skye from having relationships or fun. There were plenty of people in the world who knew the rarity of finding their soulmate but still fell in love. It was just the mentality of  _what if_ that sometimes dampened those relationships. Skye’s last relationship had ended because Miles, the guy she had been dating, found his soulmate. They had been together for over a year, but Miles readily left what they had for a chance with his soulmate. Skye couldn’t really blame him; she probably would have done the same thing.

Skye shook her head, getting rid of thoughts of the past, and put away her concealer. She quickly grabbed a jacket and her bag before heading out of her apartment. It was small, but it was cozy and Skye had made it her own.

She rushed out onto the sidewalk and started in the direction of her work. Lately she had been working at some IT place, programming the computers. While walking, Skye’s body basically went on autopilot as she thought about something she had read online earlier. That’s why she barely acknowledged a stranger bumping into her, followed by a polite, “I’m so sorry!”

Skye just mumbled out, “It’s no problem,” before continuing on her way to work, unaware of the young woman staring after her.

                                                                                        —————————————————————————

Despite Jemma Simmons’ scientific mind, she really was a romantic at heart, especially since her parents were soulmates that had found each other. She grew up on stories of their meeting, and wasn’t even disappointed at the words that appeared on her arm at sixteen.

_It’s no problem._

Such a mundane sentence, but it made Jemma smile every time she saw it. Logically, she knew the statistics of actually finding her soulmate, but she didn’t let that stop her. She checked every single time someone said those words to her, although she had never been successful so far.

Jemma was rushing to the lab; she had gotten up five minutes late and that threw her entire morning schedule off. She rushed through a particularly large group of people and clipped the shoulder of someone at the back of the pack. “I’m so sorry!” Jemma was always one for manners, even when in a rush. She was about to take off to the lab again before she heard it.

“ _It’s no problem_.”

She turned to watch the woman she had just brushed shoulders with walk away and weighed the pros and cons in her head. She quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone to text her best friend, Fitz.

_I’m going to be late to the lab today. Code Pink._

Leo Fitz had been her best friend since they were children, and he was very accustomed to Jemma’s search for her soulmate. They had established Code Pink when Jemma turned up to Fitz’s house half an hour late and was met by an extremely worried Leo Fitz and Mrs. Fitz.

_Alright. Go get ‘em Jem!_

With Fitz’s reply, Jemma placed her phone back into her pocket and tried to catch up to the woman she had run into. She spotted the woman a block ahead of her and rushed to catch up. Before she could cross the street, the light turned and she was stuck on the curb. She kept an eye on the woman and luckily the other light had turned too. When Jemma’s light turned green she hurried across the street and approached the crowd she had pushed through earlier.

She reached the woman she had run into and gently put her hand on her shoulder. “Excuse me?” Skye was brought out of her usual autopilot by a hand on her shoulder and a British accent. She turned toward the hand’s owner and was met by a beautiful woman. When Jemma saw that she had the girl’s attention she cleared her throat nervously before she continued. “Can I talk to you for a moment? If you don’t mind, that is.”

Skye found herself nodding before the other girl had even finished asking Skye to talk. “Yeah, sure.” Skye moved to lean against the nearest building so that she wasn’t obstructing any of the other commuters. Jemma moved to stand beside her. “So what’s did you need to talk about, stranger?” Skye smiled and Jemma looked down nervously.

“Alright, so I might be completely off base, but I just had to check. I bumped into you a couple of minutes ago and the first words you said to me were ‘It’s no problem’. And I just had to check because it’s such an ordinary phrase to have on your arm…and well, yeah. I’m Jemma Simmons, by the way.” While speaking, Jemma had pushed back the sleeve of her sweater to show the words on her arm.

Skye’s smile dropped slightly. She thought Jemma was absolutely adorable already, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up; it had never worked out in the past. “I’m Skye. And I’m sorry Jemma, but I was kind of spaced out while I was walking so I don’t remember what you said to me.”

‘Oh!” Jemma smiled, “That’s easy. I said ‘I’m so sorry!’ because I had bumped into you so harshly. I really am sorry about that. Thinking about it now, that’s also a very unfortunate common saying to have on your arm.”

Jemma continued rambling on nervously as Skye’s eyes widened. She quickly licked the pad of her thumb and started rubbing the concealer off her arm. Jemma saw the movement and raised an eyebrow until she saw the words start to appear from behind the concealer.  _I’m so sorry._ Jemma let out a breathy laugh and grinned. “So Skye, would you like to get to know each other some time?”

Skye blinked, eyes wide, still not quite believing this was happening and she nodded quickly. “Yeah, absolutely.”

“Wonderful! Here’s my number.” Jemma took a pen out of her pocket and gingerly took Skye’s arm. Directly beneath the words on her arm, Jemma eloquently wrote out a seven digit number followed by her name. She capped the pen and stuffed it back into her pocket before tucking a bit of her hair back behind her ear. “I wish I could stay and talk for longer, but I have to get to the lab. So, I’ll hopefully talk to you later, Skye.” Jemma left Skye with one more smile before she started heading back toward the lab—not without looking back over her shoulder several times to make sure that really happened, of course.

Skye, meanwhile, was staring at the beautiful script under the words that she so often covered up. She shook her head with a small laugh and broke out into a smile. She immediately started thinking about topics of conversation to cover when she called Jemma as she headed to work, not even caring that she was late anymore.

When her boss asked her what her reason was for being so late, she just smiled and told him, “I’m so sorry.”


End file.
